take a chance
by SaraRose435
Summary: hunter and arlene have been good friends for a nice amount of time, and finally decide to go out on a date. while stressful for arlene, the experience proves to be enjoyable for hunter. huntlene fanfic: three shot.


div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"  
>blockquote<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun Underlined SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration: underline;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Chapter 1:/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>blockquote  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>blockquote  
>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"strongspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Thirdspan/span/strongspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" Person/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" POV /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>blockquote  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Hunter and Arlene sat quietly in the living room of the Hollingsworth home, books open and pens in hand. They were studying for an English exam they were due to take the next day, one neither of them were confident in taking. /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"They paid attention in class well enough, but Realm of Doom had been keeping them busy as well. Trolls and wizards had interfered with many of their plans for moving on in the game, so they'd had to deal with that, along with getting back to their original positions in the game./span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" In a nutshell, a lot of their study time had been spent playing rather than studying, a/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"nd now, as a consequence, they were rushing to retain any knowledge about Shakespeare their teacher had b/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"een lending to them over the week. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""Okay..." Arlene mumbled, picking up the test review they'd been provided with to help them study. It was two pages, which almost assured the both of them the test would be four pages. "In which of Shakespeare's play can this quote be found: 'So foul and fair a day I have not seen'?" She looked down at Hunter, who sat on the floor beneath her, while she stretched out on the couch. He thumbed through his notes, which, from Arlene's view, seemed vague. She was doubtful he'd find anything. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""Uh, hold on," he mumbled, reading his notes on each of Shakespeare's plays they'd analyzed in class. He failed to find anything relating to the quote, and exasperatedly admitted he had nothing. "Macbeth," Arlene supplied, watching Hunter begin to scribble it in his notes, before he stopped. "We didn't study that in class," he insisted, turning to look at her in confusion. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Arlene stared at him for a sec, before pulling out her own notes, which were much more organized and detailed than his. She flipped to the page on Macbeth, and handed it to him. "According to the teacher and my notes, yes, Hunter, we did." She smirked as he handed her notes back to her, and scribbled the note in his own notes. /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Note to self, /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Hunter thought, /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"always borrow Arlene's notes. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""Okay, next question... wait... I-I think we're done. We reviewed everything; at least, everything in this packet." Arlene shoved her notes and the review in her book bag, and, after zipping it, slid down to the floor next to Hunter, who was doing the same. "How are you feeling about it? The test, I mean." /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Hunter sighed loudly, rubbing his knee. Truth be told, he knew he was /spanspan class="SpellingError SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"gonna/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" fail the quiz, but then Arlene would probably make them re-review the test and he wasn't in the mood. So, he chose the neutral answer. "Eh, not too bad, not too good. I'll probably get a C." He shrugged. He wasn't a star student, nor did he care much for school. The 'C'/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" would probably dock his grade down a letter, but it wasn't much to him. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Arlene, on the other hand, cringed noticeably, not wanting to picture getting anything below a B on a test this big. Though her parents weren't really on her ass about school, she prided herself in having flawless grades. She didn't want anything to interfere with her good grades, and getting a B would virtually destroy her perfect GPA. "Hm.. that's not good. I mean, uh, cool, cool." She sighed. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""Yeah," Hunter replied, noticing her slip up but not wanting to say anything. After a moment of silence between the two/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;", Hunter opened his mouth again./span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" "Can we both just agree to never do what we did this week again? I mean, next time, let's divide our time evenly between gaming and school." He /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"was subtly/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" hinting that he wasn't feeling too good about a 'C' either, and Arlene noticed, but didn't pull out the review sheet. Instead, she nodded furiously, agreeing. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""Yeah, next week, we have to pay attention in class, and study instead of play Realm of Doom all night." She tightened the messy bun she'd haphazardly piled on her head, brushing two stray strands of brown hair behind her ears. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""So, what are you doing this weekend?" Hunter asked, easing himself into what he hoped to ask Arlene. They'd been hanging out for a fair amount of time by now and he really liked Arlene. She was nice, funny, down-to-earth, fun, and pretty. He was pretty sure she liked him too, so he wasn't sure why he was so nervous; maybe it because he still had a little inkling of insecurity about asking his friend out. Times like this he really wished he had his brothers ego. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Arlene shrugged, rubbing her arm. "/spanspan class="SpellingError SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Hm/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;", probably /spanspan class="SpellingError SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"gonna/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" catch some z's I missed out on this week. Maybe clean my room? I might go to the store with my mom-or with my dad. I don't really have any plans," she rambled. She looked to her right at the boy with careful eyes. "What about you? Got any important campaign things to do?" She asked. She was always in awe when she remembered her best friend was the son of an important political figure. It seemed so glamorous. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Hunter shrugged. "No, nothing this weekend. The election will be soon. There's really nothing left for us to do. Not until after the election results are revealed. If dad wins office, then we'll be busy with all the articles and stuff, but if not, then dad is completely forgotten." Arlene's mouth was left open, but she quickly closed it when Hunter caught her stare. "So, no, nothing political. But I did want to ask you a question..." He takes a deep breath and Arlene narrows her eyes. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""Okay..." she says, slightly suspicious. She's feeling worried, maybe nervous, but definitely suspicious. Hunter's face has taken on an unusually serious expression, and it's quite discerning. He's almost always got a goofy look/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" on his /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"face, and sh/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"e's not used to this expression. "What is it?"/span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""Um, I... do you /spanspan class="SpellingError SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"wanna/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;", like... I don't know.. um..." He stuttered, and Arlene softens her features, no longer worried. "Spit it out," she encourages. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""Okay, um, do you... /spanspan class="SpellingError SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"wanna/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;", like... go out this weekend?" He asks clearer, and a lot less insecure. After relaxing and thinking of anything but what he was currently doing, he realized that this was easier than he'd thought it would be. However, the apprehension on Arlene's face quickly deflated/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" his confidence. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""I, um... are you sure you're asking the right girl out?" She replies lamely. She's never really thought about dating Hunter,/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" since she always thought he was out of her league. But now that she was being asked, she wasn't sure. She'd heard of friends who dated and ended up breaking up after. But she'd also heard of friends who dated and stayed together for the rest of life. She wasn't sure if she wanted to risk their friendship. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Hunter was taken aback by her response, but then chuckled/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;". "Yes, Arlene. I'm sure." Of course she'd ask something like that at a moment like this. Typical Arlene. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""What about if you don't /spanspan class="SpellingError SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"wanna/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" be my friend afterwards? What if we don't get along, I mean, you know, in case we break up? I don't know..." She gulped. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""Arlene," Hunter sighed, speaking softly, "we'll go one step at a time. I mean, you shouldn't be worrying about that... I mean, we haven't even gone out yet, who knows how it'll turn out? We might not break up."/span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Arlene could tell Hunter wanted to go out. Badly. And she did too. But she couldn't stop worrying about the potential aftermath of them dating and breaking up. She didn't /spanspan class="SpellingError SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"wanna/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;" hate him if things didn't turn out right. But on the other hand, she was beginning to realize her repressed feelings for Hunter. She did like him. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"Oh well, /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"she thought. /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"What's the harm in taking a chance? /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;""Okay sure. I'd like to go out with you... yeah, sounds... good. I'll talk to you later, though, alright? My mom kind of wants me home right about now." Arlene stood up, quickly grabbing her book bag and practically sprinting out the house. Her mom didn't really want her. She just wanted time to think... alone. /span/spanspan class="EOP SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt;" /span/p  
>div  
>div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCX149544781" style="text-indent: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"<br>p class="Paragraph SCX149544781" style="text-align: left; color: windowtext; text-indent: 0px; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,'Sans-Serif'; font-size: 6pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;"span class="TextRun SCX149544781" style="line-height: 18px; font-family: Times New Roman,Serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;" xml:lang="EN-US"span class="NormalTextRun SCX149544781" style="background-color: inherit;"When Arlene was a fair distance away from the Hollingsworth mansion, she realized she was at The Dot. Deciding she'd stop in, she pushed open the door, and took a seat. /span/span/p  
>div 


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